Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to correlating the time elapsed between the start and termination of multiple tasks and information associated with each task and/or with an entity for whom a task is performed, and more particularly, to a timekeeping system and method using a plurality of electronically readable tokens coded with information uniquely associated with predetermined tasks and/or entities and a sensing device for detecting a token and decoding the information.
Description of Related Art
Many commercial and professional endeavors use task-based billing to charge customers and clients based on the time spent working on a particular matter. This billing method is ubiquitous in the legal profession, whereby an attorney or paraprofessional will log the nature of the task and the time spent performing it. The client is then billed according to the hourly rate of the person who performed the task. All such task-based billing systems require logging information associated with the task, such as a description of the task (client meeting, a telephone call, legal research, etc.), the identity of the entity to be billed for the task, and the time spent performing the task.
Given the more or less mechanical nature of this type of billing-recording time spent and multiplying by a billing rate—it has been the subject of numerous attempts at computer implementation. One such commercially available system to that end is Timeslips® computer program that allows a user to track time spent on tasks for individual clients. One of the features of Timeslips® is a timer function whereby a user can manually activate and deactivate a timer icon on a data entry screen displayed by the program, with the elapsed time being associated with a task manually entered into a space provided on the same screen. This is cumbersome because the user has to keep Timeslips® always running on his computer, open a data entry screen, enter the client name and task information, click the icon to start the timer function, click the icon to stop the timer function when the task is complete (or interrupted), open another data entry screen for a task involving a different client, enter that client name and task information, click the icon to start the timer function for that task, click the icon to stop the timer function when that task is complete (or interrupted), and so on. There is also other prior art that describes various kinds of computerized systems designed to automate task-based billing in one way or another. Examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,672, U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,176, U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,810, and Pub. No. US2006/0031484. While these systems automate various functions with the goal of relieving the user from inputting all of the data necessary to effectuate task-based billing, none actually automates the process to an extent that significantly reduces the inconvenience of inputting sufficient information for calculating charges according to the time spent by particular individuals on tasks correlated with client matters.
Another prior art system that seeks to automate data entry for task-based billing is disclosed in Pub. No. US2003/0069815, which uses RFID (“radio frequency identification”) tags physically attached to files. The RFID tag attached to a particular file can include the name or title of the file, a file number, client name, project name, etc. Users scan the file's RFID tag at their computer workstations which begins a timer. When the user scans the file again (or scans another file), the timer stops and the time spent on that file, along with the user's identity and information from the RFID tag, is recorded. This system is more automated than the others discussed above, but it also has drawbacks. For one thing, it requires actual files to be manually scanned twice, once to start the timing operation and again to stop it. It also fails to account for situations in which the attorney does not have a file at his or her workstation but needs to log time against that file. For example, an attorney may be billing time against a file at the workstation when he or she receives a telephone call from another client whose file is not in the attorney's possession.